Returning Home from Egypt

Our flight from Rome to New York was uneventful and actually fairly comfortable, largely due to the nearly empty flight.  Being so unaware of the impending problems with the rapidly spreading threat of COVID-19, we had no idea at the time why there were so few travelers from Rome to New York.

When we arrived at JFK in New York, we had to make the very long walk to get through customs.  Everyone was hustling to get through the process, and we guessed that we probably walked about a mile to get to customs.  When we got there, we saw a tremendous line of travelers entering the US and waiting to get through customs.  We saw the place for Global Entry card holders and diplomats.  There was no line at all.  We scanned our passports and had a biometric photo taken.  A slip printed out that we carried to the agent who asked if we had anything to declare, then stamped our passports and sent us on our way. The process took only seconds making us very happy that we opted to obtain Global Entry status, and this one trip made the $100 fee and the trip to the TSA facility worth it.

We had plenty of time at JFK to walk around and stretch before our short flight to Cincinnati.  We made our way to the correct terminal, found some recliners looking out over the gates and relaxed as we did our German lessons, checked email and made calls to home.  Text messages and emails from Cindy indicated that their travel wasn’t quite as trouble free as ours, but they arrived home safely and on time. 

The flight from JFK to Cincinnati was not as empty as the one from Rome to New York but certainly wasn’t full.  By that point we were just anxious to get back to our own beds and to get our biological clocks on Eastern Time which would change to Daylight Saving Time in just a few hours after we arrived home.

After deplaning in Cincinnati, we picked up our bags and walked the short distance to the pick-up point for the Hilton shuttle van taking us to get our car through the OneStopParking.  We called the Hilton to assure that the van was still making rounds, and the shuttle arrived to get us in less than 30 minutes returning us to our car.  As with many shuttle drivers we have had in the past, this driver was a character, telling us how ancient aliens assisted the ancient Egyptians and other cultures in the constructions of their cities.

Since we knew that we would be arriving in Cincinnati after 10 pm and that we would be exhausted from the flights, we had considered booking at room at the Hilton or other nearby hotel then returning home after a good night sleep.  However, because the flights weren’t terrible and we were both longing for our own bed, we opted to make the hour drive south on I-75 to Georgetown arriving home around midnight.

We slept well then started to learn about the dramatic changes that were taking place at home and all around the world because of the coronavirus.   We would be entering a time of “social distancing” and quarantines for an undetermined period of time.

When we travel, we like to make note of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites that we visited.  On this trip we went the following four UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

• Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur
• Historic Cairo
• Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis
• Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae

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Leaving Egypt

We awoke at 12:30 am, showered, dressed and put the bags out before heading to the lobby of the Intercontinental Citystars Cairo Hotel to meet Mohammed for the short trip in the shuttle van to the Cairo airport. Mohammed gave us a breakfast bag from the hotel for us to eat at the airport. The van driver handed us over to the Road Scholar representative at the airport (also named Mohammed) who took us through the ticketing, bag check in and visa clearance processes, proving translations as necessary. We went through the heavy security at the Cairo airport without problems, at least no more than one would expect in the current times in that part of the world. Our wait for the Alitalia flight from Cairo to Rome wasn’t long, and we enjoyed the sandwiches of spiced feta cheese and processed meat on dense bread and the pastries.

The flight to Rome was fairly full, but it was only 90 minutes. We were fortunate that there was no one in the exit row seats near us, so we volunteered to move which gave the two of us a row of three seats with plenty of legroom. We napped and read on the short flight before landing in Rome.

We noted that we had changed time zones, so that rather than being 6 am as it was in Cairo, it was 5 am. We were fine with the time before we had to board the 12:10 pm flight to New York’s JFK airport. We walked around the airport to get some steps for our fitness bands. Once the need for caffeine kicked in, we stopped at a coffee shop where we saw airport workers getting breakfast, so we knew that it was probably a good place with reasonable prices. Most airport food is incredibly overpriced, especially in Europe so we were happy to find a place where we could get a couple of cups of tea for about 5 Euros (around $6) and would take a US credit card. While we enjoyed the tea, we finished the fruit from the hotel breakfast bag and checked email, did German lessons and talked about out trip. We had a text from Cindy and Mark that they had left Paris and were crammed into seats in a crowded jet for the long flight back.

Mary getting a shoulder rub at Leonardo da Vinci Airport

We did a few more laps in the airport then found the lounge chairs near gate 23. We like these seats because they are perfect for napping and have a nice view of the runways. We read some and napped some before taking one last walk at 10:30 prior to boarding our flight to the US.

Like all of the passengers, we had to go through a screening for coronavirus (COVID-19) before boarding the aircraft. We were surprised that this flight was nearly empty. We were on the right side of the main cabin and were the only passengers on that side. There were eight empty rows (two seats per row) in front of us and ten rows behind us with no passengers. That gave us plenty of room to stretch out and not have to fight for space in the overhead bins.

Our lunch choice was chicken curry with fruit salad, bread and ice cream. We had a glass of Bellini and a glass of white wine then hot tea. We watched the available streaming on the seat screens and did some reading. I watched the most recent Rambo movie, Last Blood then the latest Terminator movie, Dark Fate. I watched most of the Will Smith movie, Ali.  I spent a good deal of time working on the final installments of this travel journal and trying to not nap. I want to be ready for bed when we get home and hopefully back on our schedule soon. We don’t know how the travel across times zones and the “springing forward” to daylight saving time will affect us. We think that the sooner we get back to a normal schedule the happier we will be.

In hindsight we had no idea what changes were taking place in the US and across the world.  While in Egypt, we saw very little news and none from the US.  We had no idea that the coronavirus was having such an impact on life.  We heard about an especially virulent strain of flu that appeared to have originated at a wet market in the megacity of Wuhan in China’s Hubai Provence.  We had been to Wuhan in September and October 2018 and had probably visited the wet market in question, but we never thought that this virus would have such an impact of life around the world.  We were so happy that we did not go to China on this trip. 

That being said, we learned shortly after arriving back in the US, that Italy is an emerging hotspot for COVID-19 and could surpass China in deaths from the virus.  That explained the extensive health screening that we had by US health officials when leaving Rome for New York.  Neither did we know at that time, that New York City would be the most impacted US city by the virus.  We were happy that we returned to the US when we did.  Had we tried to leave Egypt a few days later, our return would have been a much more difficult and protracted process.